MICHAEL KRYZANEK: Third World factory workers need First World outrage to survive

When the American consumer goes shopping for clothes at Wal-Mart, The Children’s’ Place or Gap (or for that matter any other US-based major clothing store), they are usually not interested in the country of origin of the shirt or the slacks or the dress that they purchase; they are only concerned about the sale price and the prospect of coming home with bags full of bargains.

When the American consumer goes shopping for clothes at Wal-Mart, The Children’s’ Place or Gap (or for that matter any other US-based major clothing store), they are usually not interested in the country of origin of the shirt or the slacks or the dress that they purchase; they are only concerned about the sale price and the prospect of coming home with bags full of bargains.

So when a sweat shop factory in a far away country like Bangladesh collapses and 1,100 overworked and underpaid workers (minimum wage of $36.50 a month) die in the rubble because callous owners and corrupt government officials have little concern with safety and focus on profit and future sales, there is only scant interest here in the United States.

It is not that the American consumer is heartless; rather it is that our capitalist system is geared toward attracting customers with low prices and substantial savings. Although there were heart-breaking stories on the evening news and the daily papers about the tragic deaths of hundreds, a factory collapse in Bangladesh is just too far away to generate much grassroots outrage.

The deaths of the Bangladeshi garment workers becomes even more difficult to understand when factory owners make the bold claim that they pay wages far above what most workers in the country make and that the sweat shops offer an opportunity for upward mobility and a better life. There is rarely mention of the near slave-like conditions in the clothing factory and the lack of regulation by the government to improve the work environment or the wage scale. American consumers only know that they like the prices they pay at Wal-Mart, The Children’s Place and Gap, and likely have little knowledge of Bangladesh, much less the terrible conditions that produced those shirts, slacks or dresses.

This is the new globalization model of consumerism - cheap goods made in a far away country by anonymous workers in sweat shop factories for American companies. Whether it is Apple producing iPhone 5 parts in China, Nike assembling sneakers in Indonesia or Dockers khakis stitched in Honduras, the pattern of using migrant laborers willing to work tortuously long hours at low pay so as to perhaps enjoy a better life is the way we get the clothes we wear.

If there is any good that will come of the deaths of 1,100 workers in Bangladesh, it is that at least, for the moment, the world is watching to see if the major clothing companies will be shamed into insisting on worker reforms in places like Bangladesh.

International non-governmental organizations that for years have been advocating reforming the sweat shops of the world now have a platform for bringing some relief to these workers. Already a few of the European-based clothiers, like H&M, have signed on to a document pledging reforms. No company from the United States has as yet taken road to reform.

Page 2 of 2 - What will speed this reform of the globalization model that places profit over social conscience is the almost forgotten concept of corporate responsibility – a commitment from American companies to work hand in hand with the factories in far off countries to demand wage and working conditions that protect workers and provide them with a living salary.

What that means is that Wal-Mart, The Children’s Place and Gap will not look the other way when it is obvious that workers are being exploited or tolerate owners and government regulators whose only interest is in lining their pockets with profits. Moreover, what corporate responsibility also means is that US companies are willing to pull up stakes in places like Bangladesh and move to countries where there is a worker-friendly environment and where owners and government officials have at least a passing interest in safety and pay equity.

Because the globalization model is so entrenched in the corporate world, reforms will be slow. Yet CEOs of US clothiers need to remember that corporate responsibility is not some pie in the sky concept that has no value in our rugged capitalist system.

When 1,100 innocent workers die for no good reason and major US companies are in some way complicit in the deaths, it is time for social responsibility to join profit as the foundation principle of American corporate enterprise.